X-MEN - 1950's Super Panavision 70

 

 

Source : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vs4uUr_3DhU

Human Types, Hybrids and Evolved Forms in Dune

 You would imagine that in an Interstellar Imperium that stretches thousands of light years, there would at least be another sentient alien race but no, that’s not the case with Dune, there are however huge variations of humanity, some are bred differently, some have been hybridized, some have evolved with the use of Spice mélange while others have adopted a more cyborg path. So here in this video, we will explore the human types, hybrids and evolved forms that have been noted in the dune saga, at least a few notable ones. Mentats - After the abolition of thinking computers or A.I after the deady Butlerian Jihad, humans were recruited and trained to be used as living bio computers. The Bene Tleilax, also known as the Tleilaxu, were a secretive group of genetically altered humans who lived on the planet Tleilax Sorceress – These are a naturally evolved group of humans that have managed to have telekinetic and telepathic abilities. They are the precursors to the Bene gesserit Navigators are a type of artificially evolved humans belonging to the Spacing Guild. Through consuming and being exposed to large amounts of the spice Melange A Face Dancer was a part of a genetically altered and enhanced race created by the Bene Tleilax but with a status below their Tleilaxu Masters. - A Cymek was a thinking machine that was once human but had been converted into a cyborg, with a robotic body controlled by a preserved human brain. hybrids called the Futars were a human/feline mix created by the Bene Tleilax Harkonnen Pet – Seen only in the recent dune part one movie adaptation, the spider creature with human features is most likely a hybrid created by the Bene tleilax for the harkonnens Axolotl Tanks - Although appearing as machinery or equipment, the axolotl tanks were in fact females of the Bene Tleilax, transformed into a reproductive piece of machine These Phibians are a hybrid humanoid sub-race created through genetic engineering, mentioned in Chapterhouse: Dune. These are members of the Atreides bloodline after Leto the first which had been mixed and monitored for millennia by the Bene gesserit under a breeding programme that would bring forth a Kwizatz Haderach.

 

Source : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik5N2EXind4

  Art Credits: 3:43 Guild Navigator artwork by Alexandre Gianfreda https://www.artstation.com/artwork/KO6R2G

Bright

22 décembre 2017 sur Netflix / 1h 58min / Fantastique, Thriller, Action
De David Ayer
Avec Will Smith, Joel Edgerton, Lucy Fry

Dans un monde contemporain alternatif, humains, orcs, elfes et fées coexistent depuis le début des temps. Défiant les genres, Bright est un film d'action qui suit deux policiers issus de milieux différents, Ward et Jakoby. Confrontés aux ténèbres lors d'une patrouille nocturne de routine, ils voient leur avenir et leur monde se métamorphoser à jamais.

Le Champion (Doyen) vs Miss Hulk : deux combats de boxe anglaise

J'ai découvert les comics (bande dessinée américaine) alors que je n'avais qu'une douzaine d'années. A l'époque, c'était la maison d'édition Lug qui publiait en France des magazines comme Strange, Titans, Nova, etc.

Rapidement, c'est la série X-Men qui m'a le plus enthousiasmé : des mutants ("homo superior") dotés d'un pouvoir unique mais partagés entre l'envie de dominer les non-mutants ("homo sapiens") ou à l'inverse d'être simplement acceptés par les non-mutants malgré leur différence.

Je dois l'avouer maintenant : je trouvais que la grande majorité des autres séries manquaient de profondeur dans l'analyse des personnages, et se révélaient très "légères" d'un point de vue scénaristique (comme la plupart des adaptations cinématographiques d'aujourd'hui) ... ce qui ne m'a pas empêché de suivre (irrégulièrement) les aventures de certains super-héros ou super-héroïnes par simple divertissement.

Parmi ces personnages, je peux citer les "Doyens de l'Univers", des immortels monomaniaques, comme le Champion, ou quelques personnages féminins, aux corps athlétiques, comme Miss Hulk.

 

Souvent des archétypes de la force physique, en fait (comme Hulk et les dieux Hercule, Thor, etc.) :

Après avoir publié le combat "Gladiator vs Champion de l'Univers" dans l'article précédent de ce blog, je reviens sur un autre combat où l'on retrouvera justement le Champion et la beauté à la peau verte : celui qui a vu la chute du Champion de l'Univers ...

 

Commentaires d'après-match, par le vaincu :

Werewolves

Werewolves are an ancient example of pseudolazurogenics based on mythological and folkloric shapeshifters. These rianths are distinguished by a lupine physiology, created in part by incorporating DNA from canine sources into the host genome. Historians generally agree Werewolves were the first example of a true rianth clade capable of endogamy.

There is evidence of Nekomimi modifications that predated the development of Werewolves, but these early catgirl genemods were individualistic and for the most part not compatible. Werewolves became a quick growing fad in the 130s a.t. following the popularity of Donna Mather's Pack Attack Tetralogy. The genemod's development took advantage of new progress in animal cross-species gene-splicing that had occurred over the previous decade. Gene therapies for medical therapies and enhancements had become acceptable over the past century for many cultures; however voluntary genemods used for purely superfluous alterations continued to remain a controversial topic. Morphological freedom was not a universally accepted human right, in the most severe cases Werewolves were ostracized or run out of town. This attitude drove many Werewolves to gather in minority neighborhoods that were historically sympathetic to their plight. Before the Technocalypse, the largest communities of Werewolves in SolSys were established in London, Paris, New York City, Mexico City, and Tokyo.

The first generation of Werewolves used a combination of germline modifications and prosthetics to emulate the look of classical werewolves. By the second generation a genemod standard had been decided on, and continued advances in gengineering allowed for the physiology to be further refined. Several centuries after being first established the werewolf standard was adjusted for breed specific traits in dogmen.


Since these early beginnings, most Werewolf clades have resisted all but the most conservative of bodymods. One option that first became available during the First Federation, is a shapeshifting ability to switch between a lupine state and a more baseline human state. This process can either be consciously triggered or cycled based on an external trigger. The shapeshifting is limited in scope, with the most dramatic changes occurring in the integumentary system and to a lesser extent the musculoskeletal system. Other organ systems like digestive and respiration remain unaffected. The process is energy intensive and requires a tripling of daily average caloric intake. Depending on the extent of shapeshifting taking place, an individual can complete the transition in about fourteen days.

Individuals from Werewolf clades that lack the ability of repeatable shapeshifting are nearly indistinguishable from baseline humans developmentally until they reach puberty. Once this stage is reached a number of physical changes take place. The maxilla and nasal bones are extended and widened into a proper snout. The canine teeth are enlarged and premolars are adapted to carnassial teeth to adjust to a predominantly carnivorous diet. The fingernails and toenails are modified into claws, and in some clades the shoulders and hips are modified to support efficient quadrupedal locomotion. Their strength is boosted by increases in muscle mass and muscle fiber density per square centimeter. A layer of fur is formed by an induced hypertrichosis, producing thick terminal and fine vellus hair. Further modifications deal with the sensory system, hearing and olfactory, and digestive system.

As with many early genemods, the standard Werewolf genemod had unforeseen complications. The combination of the changes in diet and neurobiochemistry has resulted in a high incidence rate of Werewolves suffering from episodes of melancholia and manic depression. A workaround to this defect has been known since the early 4th century a.t., however even with this cure many purists refuse to adopt the changes and instead have modified their lifestyle. These psychological symptoms are now well known to be caused by environmental factors, and can be minimized through avoidance. This misunderstanding of occasional foul moods by outsiders has reinforced the pack lifestyle of close connection to family and friends.

Image from Steve Bowers   Source :  http://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/4da8f48245f71

Vampires

Image from Steve Bowers

An object of erotic horror fiction since Industrial Age Old Earth, the first vampire clades came about when gothic romanticists set up their own gengineered and tweaked subculture during the Interplanetary Age. As part of their mythos about avoiding natural sunlight, they chose to get as far from the sun as possible, and set up small habitats and colonies around Neptune and in the Kuiper belt. In this way they escaped the Technocalypse, and in the subsequent centuries further evolved their own cultures and subculture (with each hab is a separate "clan") - keeping sacred the memory and myth of the 19th century c.e. Count Vlad, the 20th/21st century c.e. Blessed Lestat, and other figures who came to be considered real historical personalities

The Vampire clans had no desire to join the new Federation, and as even the haloists and hiders considered them strange, they had little to do with the rest of civilization. They have good relations with the Backgrounders, being attracted to their cyborg "cold adaptations", which were compatible with their own aesthetic of the cold and the grave (this latter referring to the pre-medical nanotech period when humans were mortal and would be interred in the ground following death). The Backgrounders for their part tend to be simply amused by these funny little tweaks and either humour them or use them to further their own goals

Among the diverse clades and clans, there are some vampires who go for backgrounderization and cryocyborgization, but others would see that as a sell-out, because by becoming cyborg they lose their inhumanity

Among the many well known tribes that have developed and cladized over the millennia are the vlads, wampyres, bloodborgs (vampire cyborgs), Children of Lestat, House of Lamia, Tan'gg DruU, the Convocation, and many others.

It is not uncommon for there to be long-running feuds between the clans.

Most raid hu settlements, usually haloists but sometimes inner system worlds, to seek new victims (although they also have their bionano blood replicators it is considered contemptible to rely on them too much. If you can't kill a real hu you are not considered a true Child of the Undead). Some clades kill their victims, others retain them as erotic slaves, and others again inject into them the vampire nano, thus making the victim emself a vampire (until they can get the nano flushed out, but the clever vampire clades use a type of nano that is very difficult to remove without killing the victim).

A few vampire groups claim or pretend to be involved with groups like the Shadow Federation, usually because they like the name. It is not known what Shadow Federation powers themselves think of this.

In addition to neogenic and symbiotic bionano virus clades, there are also high tech nano-based vampires that use massively-parallel bio-nanocomputers in the bloodstream and achieve data transfer via blood-cell memory. In some parts of the Durath Orwoods they are so common that if they tried some kind of wireless transfer they'd irradiate their hosts. It would be pointless for such creatures to attack others, but that hasn't stopped rumors of the "bloodsucking fiends".

In the Current Era vampires and vampire colonies, are fairly rare, but still well entrenched throughout the galaxy. While thinking of themselves as hunters they more often find themselves the hunted. In isolated or frontier worlds they are hunted ruthlessly, while in the more hi tech systems if they are caught they get their biochemistry redone to convert back into normal hu, as well as extensive behavioural and memetic re-engineering. But even though there are not many (compared to other clades), they are tenacious, and survivors, and live off their reputation and notoriety. There is no shortage of unhappy near-baseline children wanting to join their ranks, but very few survive to their 100th birthday (usually the newest are sent on suicide missions to prove themselves. Only those that make it are truly accepted). But there are also more easy going vampire clades who happily accept newcomers. These are despised by the serious older vampire houses and clans. In the present era there are perhaps a billion vampires of all types and tech levels, in more than a hundred thousand houses and clades throughout the galaxy.

Source :  http://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/47f6f53cdcd3a

Twin Clades

Image from Bernd Helfert

Biont clades which have been gengineered to consistently produce twin pregnancies are known as Twin Clades. While some of these clades produce dizygotic twins, most such clades produce monozygotic ('identical') twins. Monozygotic twins occur when an ovum splits in two post-fertilization, resulting in two genetically identical embryos.

Twins of this nature have long been noted for their great, though not total, similarities. While they are originally genetically identical, environmental factors, especially during gestation or early after birth or hatching, can produce epigenetic differences by turning different genes on or off. Epigenetic differences increase with age and are more pronounced when the twins have divergent experiences or upbringings. Nevertheless, monozygotic twins are often very similar in habits, tastes and personality, the latter of which has historically often been seen to become more similar with time.

Cryptophasia has long been observed in monozygotic twins, they often develop their own private languages in early life, especially if raised in somewhat non-verbal environments. Monozygotic twins are thought to have been studied since even before the Information Age on Old Earth to determine the importance of genetics in psychological development.

Among baselines, twinning of this nature was rare and essentially random with no genetic predispositions, but as early as the Interplanetary Age it began to become more common and some early clades started to develop, some for research purposes, others were founded by twins, often for the sake of continuing their lifestyle and creating a whole new culture. At first this was accomplished by manipulating in-vitro fertilization, but not too long after this time genetic studies of the Nine-Banded Armadillo (which always produces identical quadruplets) revealed a mechanism which could guarantee the production of identical twins in natural reproduction.

Since then, many Twin Clades have been created. There are clades made entirely of identical twins, others restrict the trait to one sex or another and often practice some form of bigamy. Some clades emphasize the sameness of the twins by encouraging twins to never be apart, sharing all the same experiences, wearing the same clothes, and keeping identical styles, others find interest in going the other direction to see how similar the twins end up without trying to, a cultural remnant of early scientific interest.

The fact that baseline monozygotic twins are genetically identical means that they have very similar thought patterns and they can sometimes seem almost telepathically linked, but this is just the result of them being very similar in genetics and experience, which can be compared in a limited fashion to recently diverged Copies. Some Twin Clades are noted for taking this phenomenon and making it a reality, giving twins some means of linking and/or sharing their minds to some degree. This ranges from simple enhancement of many empathic cues made unique to the twins, to DNI or genemods creating partial sharing up senses or even full techlepathy to the point of making them one person.

Source :  http://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/4f58da39e27c3

Tro'el, Clade

Image from Arik

Origin

The Tro'els are a clade of hu tweaks that have been optimized for arctic and sub-arctic climates. Originally refugees of the Great Expulsion, they settled on an ice moon in the outer system and used genemods to adapt themselves to living in ice caves beneath its surface.

Physical

Tro'els are large nearbaselines; up to 2.5 m tall with a round muscular body that weights about 500-700 kg. They have a large, wide nose with a rich network of blood vessels to warm inhaled air and recover heat from exhaled air. Their arms and legs have length proportions more akin to a great ape than a human but each is much thicker than in either of them to retain heat. Thick layers of fat and hair covering their bodies from head to toe further enhance heat retention. Even the palms of their hands and the bottoms of their feet have special pads that act as thermal breaks between them and the ice. Tro'els are so well protected from the cold they can use a slab of ice as a comfortable bed and a bucket of snow for bathing/scrubbing down. Nor do they need protective clothing often go about their business au naturel. (Of course this doesn't mean they are exhibitionists as their hair covers anything of interest.) Interestingly, these changes were achieved with only minor genetic alterations, mostly those that guide the degree and timing of growth hormones, and as a result Tro'els are fully interfertile with baseline humans.

Psychology

Tro'els have a reputation for being anti-social or misanthropic. Nothing could be farther from the truth; Tro'els simply like to live in an environment that humans and most other nearbaselines avoid. Those who have braved the cold dry air of a Tro'el warren have found them to be quiet but friendly and generous even to strangers. Tro'els are particularly fond of showing off their folk art; a style of large-scale ice carving that highlights fine detailing and often tells a locally known story.

Culture

Culturally the Tro'els are very diverse. Their preferred environment is a network of ice tunnels deep beneath the surface of an ice dwarf moon or frozen planet. As such they form small communes around some local heat source or pocket of liquid water and each commune is free to develop their own culture. They mine for ices and meteorite debris and may trade with the outside world but their isolation protects them from many foreign memes although they do take on the general meme-sets of the local polity. Some warrens are closer to the surface/outside world than others and the Tro'els of these communes often like to maintain the illusion of them being the trolls of old Earth folklore. Tro'els are aware of their appearance to outsiders and of the race memories they invoke in some baseline hu and this has become something of a cultural in-joke to them.

Technology

Tro'el technology is like-wise very diverse. They dig their habitats, and carve out the furnishings, directly out of the ice but other tech may use any substrate they can get their hands on. Tro'els are modosophont so their day-to-day tech can be anything from prim to high and dry to biotech, depending on their commune's culture. Also, when Tro'els set out to settle another ice dwarf they sometimes carry a geoflex computer seed with them. If the new world is suitable the AI associated with this seed may be anything up to a third toposophic hyperturing, which often gives the Tro'els access to ultra, transapient, and low godtech.

Image from Steve Bowers Source :  http://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/47f6ed232a78f

Toy Humans

Dependence-tweaked human-clade.

A rather disturbing trend found in the unscanned market recently by various sophont-rights groups investigating alleged NoCoZo abuses, Toy Humans are beings based off of a human genome but biochemically and/or genetically altered to grow to roughly 1/3 normal human height (approx .6-.9 m tall) with a concurrent 1/27th weight. These beings are often plagued with health defects and thus a surprisingly short lifespan of only a few centuries even with proper medical care. Worse, their cognitive abilities are cruelly stunted by the processes applied as zygotes.

Toy humans are often mules, but those few which are fertile may or may not produce human-standard or 'toy' scale offspring, depending on the specific process(es) used in their creation.

Source :  http://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/47a51328cc881

Sailors of the Ebon Sea

Image from Steve Bowers

A Sailor collecting light energy; this false colour image includes some of the extra wavelengths that a Sailor can detect, including the Cosmic Microwave Background

The Sailors are a relatively small clade that can be found in numerous inhabited systems. Their earliest accounts suggest that they were the creations of a Power who was interested in exploring the extremes of biont adaptation. The Sailors are tweaks who have been adapted to long term survival in 0-g vacuum environments. As long as they have regular access to food, water, and sunlight, they can survive indefinitely in the vacuum of space. The extensible solar collecting membranes that fan out from their back allow them to live comfortably anywhere from 0.5 to 5.5 AUs from a G2 star. When fully extended, the membranes look somewhat like great black moth wings. The Sailors are completely adapted to life in space and can eat, excrete and even mate in vacuum. The only times they must enter a pressurized environment is to give birth or to undergo certain medical procedures. In all such cases, a low- pressure inert gas provides sufficient protection.

Unlike the various other vacuum adapted bionts, the Sailors of the Ebon Sea are also equipped with a natural plasma sail. Using biologically generated electricity and small quantities of hydrogen gas, these bionts can create vast solar sails made of plasma, allowing them to reach anywhere in the habitable portions of a star system within a few months. A few lucky veteran space travelers have looked out the window of their cabin and seen the sight of a Sailor cruising by with its plasma sail gently illuminated by internal fluorescence.

Biology

Physically, the Sailors are humanoids that range between 1.8 and 2.4 meters tall. They have slender, somewhat attenuated limbs, large barrel-like chests, and a noticeable hump-like bulge on their backs. Their skin is hairless and as smooth and thick as a terrestrial dolphins'. Their eyes are quite large, and like many other vacuum-adapted humanoids are capable of interpreting a frequency range from the cosmic microwave background (useful for orientation) to the far ultraviolet, using the Extended Colour Convention. They possess baseline equivalent senses of touch, taste, hearing, and smell, although the later two can only be used when they are in an atmosphere.

In addition, they can communicate using both radio waves and UV lasers. Their radio communications are general broadcasts that they can receive at a range of up to 20 million km (less in systems with high levels of radio noise). Radio communication is equivalent to baseline speech, and can also be used to communicate with the radios used on most spacecraft. In contrast, their laser communications have a range of only 100 km, but are a high bandwidth method of communication that essentially allows the participants to send and receive thoughts, images, and detailed sensory information. Because the Sailors possess only two laser emitters (located on either side of their foreheads), they can only communicate in this fashion with no more than two others of their kind. One consequence of the neural hardwiring associated with laser communications is that sane Sailors cannot deliberately lie when using laser communication.

Their solar-collection membranes are extremely thin and can be completely retracted, allowing them to wear ordinary space suits or other clothing. The hump on their back becomes somewhat wider when these membranes are retracted. Each of these two membranes can be extended to cover up to 30 m2. Also, while they possess fully prehensile feet, they are able to live and walk normally in gravities up to 12 m/sec2. However, they find gravities of 5 m/sec2 or less to be far more comfortable.

Psychology

While Sailors exhibit the same social and cultural diversity found among most humanoids, Sailor societies typically have several features in common. While they are physically somewhat solitary Sailors are extremely gregarious with respect to communication. Many Sailors talk to nearby fellows on a nearly constant basis. However, this applies only to radio communication. Only friends, lovers, or family members regularly communicate using the more intimate laser mode. However, brief bouts of such communication are exchanged between Sailor who wish to ensure both honesty and clear communication.

Because of the depth of their laser communications, serious disagreements and misunderstandings between Sailors are far less frequent than among baselines. Many Sailors have difficulty trusting sapients who they cannot communicate with in this fashion. As a result, most bionts and aioids who work with Sailors on a regular basis are altered to be able to utilize this communication mode. While Sailors can be formidable warriors, in almost all cases their conflicts are outside their clade.

While there are occasional exceptions, the vast majority of Sailors not only prefer living in open space or among asteroid belts, they find the experience of being in open space to be deeply spiritual. There seems to be a biological basis for such feelings, leading many Sailors to believe that their creator designed them to find spiritual truths in this vast and empty environment.

Society

The Sailors of the Ebon Sea generally live on asteroids or small moons. They usually prefer to reside on bodies that they can leave without external aid, restricting them to bodies less than 20 kilometers in diameter. They build hospitals and residences on such locations. While Sailors can subsist on ice and heavily modified vacuum adapted lichens, most prefer a more varied diet. As a result, their inhabited asteroids all contain pressurized locations dedicated to food production and preparation. The Sailors have developed a number of surprisingly tasty vacuum-proof concentrates made from conventional human foodstuffs. Although Sailors tend to be nomadic, most prefer to have a home base that they return to periodically.

In more backward systems where all industry is not performed by advanced nanotechnology, Sailors frequently work in 0-g and vacuum industries, asteroid surveying and mining. Others act as discrete couriers or smugglers between space habitats, or as crew members on all manner of spaceships. A few Sailors enjoy visiting habitable planets and mingling with the great masses of humanity, but most prefer stays on orbitals and space colonies, since they are not as far from the beloved emptiness of space.

In the vast majority of cases, Sailor societies operate as either free- form anarchies or direct democracies. However, in some backward systems franchise and rights are only granted to other Sailors. In some systems Sailors enslave non-space-adapted bionts to work as servants and technicians on their asteroid residences. Unable to leave without aid, these slaves have little choice but to obey their masters. In a few primitive systems, the Sailors have even enslaved entire space colonies and regularly prey upon low-tech cargo ships. While such practices are fortunately rare, the Sailors have an exceedingly negative reputation in some systems.

Spirituality

The most universal feature of Sailor psychology is their love of being in open space. When not occupied with other tasks, many Sailors will spend many hours meditating in vacuum. Such periods of meditation often substitute for the sleep that many other clades of tweaks and near-baselines require. Sailor often have trouble describing this experience to outsiders, but it seems to involve a feeling of oneness with the universe and a sense that the universe itself is a vast conscious entity. Some Sailors also claim that stars are sapient beings and a few believe that they have actually received messages from these stars. The more devote Sailors often channel these religious feelings into efforts that range from creating religious treatises to engaging in advanced astronomy or studying the nature of the structure of space.

Source :  http://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/47f597011eb3c

Rise of Homo Superior, The

Despite the popularity of eugenist and selective-breeding ideologies that culminated in short-sighted memeticities such as the Aryan Morningstar League and the early 22nd century c.e. Lunar Eugenist Institute, it was actually the transhumanist and libertarian biohackers that gave rise to Homo superior. But this was only because of the enormous biotech revolution taking place at that time.

The Early Days

The first decades of the 21st century c.e. saw developments in genomics equal to the computer and information revolution of the last decades of the 20th century. The original application, in the 2010s c.e. , was in identifying and removing those genes responsible for congenital disease. But beginning in the years 2015-2020 c.e. developments in genomics and genetic engineering allowed parents to actively select specific genes for their unborn children, in the hope of improving their physical attractiveness, athletic, intellectual, and/or creative abilities, longevity, and resistance to diseases, stirring up a hornet's nest of moral and legal issues. While most genes were considered "public domain", and only a fee for the splicing was charged, already genomic megacorporations like Celeron began selling the rights to specialty genes.

By the 2030s c.e. genetic modification of humans were becoming increasingly accepted, although there was a vocal minority opposed to such acts of "playing God". Germline modifications continued, although their legality has been uncertain. A generation of superbabies were growing up into child entrepreneurs, forcing big changes to business and employment law and practices, as well as rules relating to legal maturity and asset ownership.

By the 2040s c.e. a vast "genomic gap" had developed between the haves and the havenots - greater even than the digital divide of the early 21st century, and equivalent to the class distinctions of the early Industrial Age. Those fortunate wealthy individuals, or those from wealthy families, had the benefit of germline modification, and tended to be consistently more intelligent, more athletic, more healthy, and more physically attractive. Yet at the same time true genius and creativity remained elusive, being the result of combinations of genetic and environmental factors that were difficult to quantify.

The Biopunks

The development of do-it-yourself genomic engineering in the 2050s and 2060s c.e. gave rise to the biopunks, a generation of mostly young, white superbaby males under 25, whose dress ranged from baggies and T-shirts through goth black and multiple piercings to conventional suits, and whose lifestyles varied accordingly, but all of whom were distinguished by self-inflicted gene hacks, feathers or scales instead of hair, bands of chromatophores, mobile tattoos, and general somatic enhancement. Abhorring business patenting and secrecy, they were pathological braggarts, with a culture based on open source ("genomes want to be free") and pirate geneprints were placed on servers in datahavens from the North Sea ex oil rig microstates to the pirate havens of states like Azerbaijan and Mogadishu.

The biopunk movement accelerated the cultural acceptance of germline engineering, which was developing in more and other ways than merely cosmetic, athletic, intellectual, or for clone farming. Various groups and states were also modifying newborns for various experimental extremes such as lifespans much longer than was generally attempted in mainstream efforts, weightlessness (for prolonged deep space habitation), and there were even for some years private and military programs to 'hard-wire' versions of certain mind-over-body techniques only accessible through years of discipline and learning in pre-scientific cultures - e.g. Tibetan monks, etc.). Attempts to attain extra-sensory perception failed entirely.

The 'Tweaks'

The members of the post-biopunk generation were less interested in biofashion and simple experimentation, and more interested in furthering their own - and by implication, human - evolution. They began referring to themselves as Homo superior, although they did not represent a single genomic pattern, nor were they so different from baseline humans to make fertile offspring through interbreeding impossible (the conventional definition of the biological species). More commonly, they were called the Tweaks, an early biopunk term, for their enthusiasm of "tweaking" their genome and achieving the optimal geneprint. While some tweaks became wealthy through working for, and eventually running, megacorporations, and aggressively protected their patented geneprints, others, like the biopunks before them, were strongly anti-business and anti-patent, adopting the biopunk slogan "genomes want to be free" and exchanging DNA source-codes and phenotypic simulations, often via DNI.

The development of the orbital colonies in the 22nd century c.e. excited great interest among some superiors, especially the SMI²LEs (named after an equation by the late Industrial Age pharmocratic prophet Timothy Leary - Space Migration Intelligence squared Life Extension) who saw it as the new frontier and breaking free of the larval terrestrial existence. Other superiors saw the space frontier as a false hope, and worked instead to undermine government, religious, and mercantile interests and make the Earth into bio-technical utopia.

By the later 22nd century c.e. the orbital tweaks had already claded from the Terran tweaks. Second and third generation orbital superiors like Jean Beloit Sampson, Mariko Sakawa, Roland Kozyrev, and Michelle Chan established the status of the orbital Homo sapiens superior as formidable corporate raiders who worked in conjunction with in-house expert systems and AIs to build huge corporate empires.

The Geneteks

The rise in power of the Orbital states during the 22nd and 23rd century c.e. was also the rise in power of the orbital superiors, who began acquiring more and more power and influence. At the same time resentment began building among the Terran, Lunar, and Martian superiors. The huge Terran tweak-run corporation GeneTEK aligned itself with some of the small independent and disaffected orbitals and lunar states in order to establish a presence in space not dependent on the Orbital Alliance and their near-monopoly on interplanetary travel.

Even before the spread of the pirate "Gloriously Bright" germline cell patch, GeneTEK had already acquired a favourable reputation among genehacks and neobiopunks for its distribution of open source genomes. By the late 23rd century c.e. GeneTEK, the Orbital Alliance, the Terran and Lunar States, Mars, the Belt colonies, and the mining megacorporations were competing in the development of the outer solar system. Not only was there a rivalry of interests, but also of clades, as different subspecies competed. While the Terran and Terran-aligned orbitals employed neumanns and microgravity-adapted space people (Homo sapiens cosmoi), and the Orbital League used their own tweaks (Homo sapiens superior) in large SIOS vessels, the Lunarians and Martians used unmodified colonists in Luna-standard and Mars-standard gravity medium-sized vessels, the GeneTEK faction had geneered their own deep-space subspecies, the Homo sapiens geneticus.

For all the expense, the GeneTEK gamble payed off, although this was perhaps more due to bad luck on the part of their rivals than to superiority over the Orbitals. The microgravity-adapted space people, resentful of on-going prejudice and baseline hysteria, seceded from Earth and established their own colonies beyond Pluto, becoming the first of the true haloist clades. The Lunarians and Martians established a few colonies, but for the most part their efforts failed less due to psychological effects of prolonged isolation and more because their ships were not large enough to contain viable biospheres. The Orbital League became embroiled in a trade war with the Luna states, and with resources more limited were unable to maintain the necessary industrial output for the manufacture of the giant SIOS vessels. By the time they had subverted the big Lunar Cities and formed the Cis-Lunar League, the GeneTEK effort had already become a distinct political entity, the Gengineer Republic, essentially a GeneTEK-run corporate state, and working on Machiavellian efforts to take control of the Jovian League.

The 24th century c.e. saw increasing cladisation and hence increasing ideological differences, especially between the "big three" - the Orbital dominated Cis-Lunar League, the Mars Federation, and the Gengineer Republic dominated Jovian League. But by the end of the century the term "tweak" had become for some a rather impolite term (although not as bad as "gooks", "googels" or "freaks") that non-superiors use to refer to those humanoids who have been genetically engineered to superhuman status. Some su clades insisted on using the Linnean term Homo superior, despite the fact this name was declared nomen vanum for completely valid reasons by The Interplanetary Society of Zoological Nomenclature.

Apart from matters of zoological convention, there is another reason why Homo superior is not a valid term. Quite simply, by this time there was not one single species of superior, but dozens. Each su and tweak colony and guild and association had its own opinion as to what was the optimal course that human evolution should take. Moreover, different outpost and biospheres had different environmental conditions which required different biological and genetic modification.

Source :  http://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/47fc2ccba05bf

Pet Humans

Homo parvus

Image from Arik

Pet humans are a human subspecies created as pets or toys; most are highly neotenous and remain cute and childlike for their entire lives. Lifespan varies, although in general it is short (less than 20 years). Intelligence is as a rule below 60, and empathy enhancements are nearly always present. Reproduction is usually artificial rather than sexual.

Some pet human species have features that make them more adorable to the owner species. Examples include the dolphin-human pets bred by the various hybrid farms of Hwii that include elements of both human and dolphin children as well as amphibiousness, or the cybernetic children of Fata Morgana that are intended as AI/vec pets and are equipped with AI subsystems.

It is unknown when the first pet humans were created; some historians suggest as early as the 22nd century, others suggest it was during the First Federation as the first splices became so rich and independent that they could afford to turn the tables on Homo sapiens. Since then various pet human species have been developed on different worlds.

The practice should not be confused with using baseline humans or splices as pets. The most common definition of pet humans is that they are incapable of maintaining a culture of their own and are totally dependent on an owner species. However, the wild former pet humans on Kaumbrey (Alpha Euterbia II, Olumbi region in the NoCoZo) show that occasionally pet humans can survive on their own.

The legal status of pet humans varies. In many jurisdictions with strong near baseline populations the practice is outlawed and equated with slavery, genetic violence, or child mistreatment. In some cases loopholes exist, such as among Tier II worlds of the NoCoZo or the fourth revision of the ComEmp Ontology where the design and growth of new pet humans is illegal but the caretakership of one is equated with caretakership of otherwise retarded baseline humans.

In some systems such as Hwii, Kolmog or Fata Morgana the practice has remained legal (with various restrictions) for millennia. Several species of provolved Earth creatures, such as the Greater Superchimps of the Centaurus Expansion, maintain populations of pet humans for sentimental reasons or for sport.

Source : http://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/47f43431bcb41

Parthene, Clade

All female human clade

Image from Steve Bowers

(5) Astraea

After a short period of mining by autonomous Neumann replicator machines this asteroid in the Old Solar System was abandoned until colonisation in 220 AT by the all-female Parthene clade of superbright genetic tweaks; the Parthenes became active in mining many smaller asteroids in this band, and many were engaged in deep space astronomy using the long baselines available.

Clade Parthene

The research into inheritable genetic modification to improve human intelligence had a very high failure rate, and was long outlawed on the Earth's surface during the early Interplanetary Age; for this reason many new tweaked genomes were developed in the orbital habitats surrounding the Earth and Moon. One promising approach involved selecting the intelligence traits associated with female development and hormone balance; many profound behavioural differences were determined to result from the complicated interactions between the male and female chromosomes and the rest of the genome. After finding a way to induce parthenogenesis (the development of new individuals from unfertilised ova) at will in human females, the all female team at Biotopia (Asherah) produced a superbright all female genotype, the so-called Parthenes. Each Parthene child is a natural clone of her mother.

The first Adult Individual, Jenni Denley, led the colonisation of Astraea Asteroid in 220 AT, and her clone/daughter Julie became a famous astrometrist, working with the hyperturing AI known as 110001 to map the entire visible galaxy by 261.

The superbright Parthene culture was very rich and diverse, relying on advanced hormone control to regulate many social and physiological aspects of the women's lives. Soon after the initial development of the clade it became apparent that simple cloning by means of parthenogenesis would lead to social stagnation, so the Parthenes used various methods of ova fusion allowing a form of female-only sexual reproduction. In the current era this includes the production of female pseudosperm with only X chromosomes.

As time passed the Parthene clade diversified their genetic typology, some becoming adapted to life on planets and habitats with artificial gravity, others remaining adapted to microgravity. They have remained relatively close in appearance to baseline human females, although some individuals develop secondary sexual characteristics only when in reproductive mode, while others adopt body-types resembling human males on a temporary or permanent basis.

Source :  http://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/486fec2d0c177

Nisse, Clade

Ultra-small and lightweight Human clade

Image from Arik

In the past human baselines could, as a species, vary in height by as much as two metres. This was due to several medical conditions that usually came with complications that also shortened the lifespan and were weeded out of the nearbaseline genome in timely fashion. However as humanity spread to the planets and stars variance in the human form was found to be useful and the gengineers began creating new clades of man that were even taller, like the Goliaths, and smaller, like the Nisse.

History

The Nisse actually started out from a natural drift in their genepool. During the Early Interplanetary Period their forbearers settled on a small asteroid with limited volatiles. As their population grew the process of insular dwarfism (also known as island dwarfism) shifted their genepool to smaller sizes. Rather than fight this trend they chose to guide it and used their gengineering to keep ahead of the negative effects of reducing size.

Spreading out from their home later in the Interplanetary Period these pre-Nisse found gainful employment as ships' crew (in microgravity they could do as much work as a larger crewman but they needed much less living space and life support) and were soon a common sight in the Solsys. Using their new wealth to buy the latest in superturing computers and nanotech they were able to improve the living conditions on their home while also slowly moving it outsystem during the Nanotech Window. These pre-Nisse had been watching the Inner System with great concern for many years and they could see bad times ahead. Outbreaks of goo and nanotech attacks, new clades of heteromorphic humans and provolved animals being subjected to fear and abuse, old political powers being overtaken by new polities, interstellar colonization and, most worrying of all, vague reports of transapient intelligences were giving them cause to believe something "bad" just had to happen. They were right of course but due to their foresight they were also well protected and when the Interplanetary Dark Age hit they just hunkered down behind their blue goo defences and waited it out. It was during this period of isolation that they would become the Nisse.

Image from Steve Bowers

Members of the subclade Homo tantillus tenuis often wear customised wingpacks; this increases their faerie-like appearance

Biology

Even before gengineering became possible nature-induced flaws in the human genome had produced humans as small as half a metre tall. These were created by a rare form of dwarfism called Primordial Dwarfism, a condition that results in a smaller, but proportionate, body size in all stages of life beginning from before birth. With advanced gengineering, nanotech and superturing AIs to guide them the soon to be Nisse could not only match this but better it. What they created was a beautifully proportionate human form in miniature, a clade of tweaks that were not only a mere 30 cm, on average, but also healthy and free of negative side effects.

The "healthy and free of negative side effects" part was more easily said than done; the human form simply could not accommodate such a small size and not produce negative side effects but the Nisse took a staged and step-by-step approach to the task and were able to work through each problem as it came up. One big problem was procreation. If an adult Nisse is tiny then a baby Nisse is minuscule. Even something as simple as heat loss can threaten a newborn's life.To delay childbirth and give the foetus more time to grow, the Nisse use a range of alternative reproduction strategies. Another problem was keeping their intelligence level up. A proportionate human form means a proportionately sized human head and at only 30 cm high such proportionality produces a brain too small for baseline intelligence. However, as their size decreased with each generation the Nisse were able to counter this using various tricks; Some were the same tricks the provolvers of the African Gray Parrot used. (Bird brains are naturally more efficient from the need to keep mass low for flight.) They had also used some su genes. (If the Superiors could have superbright intelligence in normal sized brains why couldn't they have normal level intelligence in smaller brains?) Additionally the Nisse brain is not fully developed in all regions, to make room for other regions that have to be more developed. It is most developed in the prefrontal cortex, a region responsible for Executive Functions [1], while the functions in the underdeveloped regions are augmented through the use of compubones, produced by bionano that is now passed on to the child in its mother's milk. Finally the compubones, and its related DNI, allow the Nisse to outsource their higher brain functions to their habitats' computronium nodes; this gives them various superior abilities, like a superbright level Knowsense. Then, there are their physical abilities.

The Nisse are of course much weaker, physically, than larger bionts and can't lift heavy weights, in absolute terms. However in proportion to their size they are much stronger than larger bionts due to the effects of cubic geometry [2]. The Nisse are about 1/6 as tall as a baseline. They have at best only 3% his physical strength, but because their mass is so much more reduced they are far more agile. A Nisse could do chin-ups one handed with two fellow Nisse hanging on to his legs. Proportionate strength isn't the only thing that makes a Nisse so agile. Because of their small size their neural pathways are also far shorter, this gives a Nisse the reflexes of a cat.

Although later Nisse would take a different view, when the original Nisse began their gengineering their goal was not just to create a functional miniature of the human form but also to create a beautiful one as well. As such they followed the classical standards of body proportions. As a result their form was not what it would be if they had evolved to their small size. Their eyes for example, while not quite proportionate to their heads, were smaller than they should be for a being their size. At that time their eyes were just large enough to give them a child-like charm. This was a trade-off, the smaller eyes allowed for more room in their head for a larger brain but their resolution suffered. However with DNI linkage to their habitat's sensors they didn't suffer too much for it. Another trade-off could be found in their bone structure. At that earlier time their bones were thicker than they needed to be for the loads they were normally put under, however these thicker bones could house more computronium and made the Nisse more robust. These Nisse functioned well in high acceleration spacecraft.

Current Era

The Nisse have spread far in the Terragen Sphere, they find it relatively easy to get passage on ships of all kinds. If a ship can carry even a single neb it can carry a small breeding group of Nisse. The Nisse adopt the memes of the polities they live in and get along well with other races because they are almost never seen as a threat. Interestingly enough, one race the Nisse get along with particularly well are the Goliaths. The two races share similar views on living in an off-sized world. The Nisse have also sub-claded several times to adapt to whatever world they settle on and are now a superclade in their own right. For example:

Homo tantillus tenuis have less muscle mass, slender legs, arms, and torsos(and thusly weigh less for a given height) and have much larger eyes in proportion to their head compared to baselines. And while they are still relatively more agile and athletic than baselines, it is less extreme than predicted by uniform scaling rules. This sub-clade look very much like faeries and make great play on that fact, even to the point of wearing customized wingpacks as part of their every day attire.

Homo tantillus blefuscu are small, stocky humanoids, adapted to the heavy gravity and helium-rich atmosphere of their home planet.

Notes:

[1] Executive Function relates to abilities to differentiate among conflicting thoughts, determine good and bad, better and best, same and different, future consequences of current activities, working toward a defined goal, prediction of outcomes, expectation based on actions, and social "control" (the ability to suppress urges that, if not suppressed, could lead to socially-unacceptable outcomes). There is also an integral link between self-awareness (a person's personality) and the functions of the prefrontal cortex.

[2] Take a shape, like a sphere, and double its diameter. Its width increases by a factor of 2, its cross section by a factor of 4 and it's volume by a factor of 8. Now do this to a man: a Goliath is twice as tall as a baseline but 4 times as strong because his strength is a function of the cross section of his muscle tissue. However he should also weigh 8 times as much. Of course in the real world scaling is not this simple: Instead, among similarly shaped creatures, you find scaling according to the principle of elastic similarity. An elastically similar strut or cantilever will experience the same relative deformation under the load of its own weight. This ensures a constant resistance to buckling (the primary mode of bone failure, as well as buckling about a joint due to overloading the muscles) under athletic activity. This form of scaling requires thickness to increase faster than length, but then mass also increases faster. The same thing happens with muscles so there's no question that a Goliath can lift greater weights than a baseline, but he can't do chin-ups. The opposite is true for scaling in the other direction.

Source :  http://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/47f42fd2915ba

Rianth

Humans with animal genes

Image from Bernd Helfert

The term Rianth is derived from Greek, therianthrope, and was first used in the Interplanetary Age. It describes a person or a clade of human derivation in which the genome has been modified to express traits found in other naturally evolved species, usually animals. Some distinguish between rianths who have incorporated the traits of provolves and those who show the traits of baseline animals. The distinction between rianths and splices is more social and historical than biological. Unlike the splices, who have often had a history of domestication and service employment, rianths have more typically had complete autonomy and were not slaves but free citizens at their time of origin. They are baseline or nearbaseline humans who chose to acquire nonhuman traits and make them heritable, or whose human parents made that choice for them.

Rianths are often divided into distinct clans, clades, and phyles, depending on the type and proportion of nonhuman genome. They are an incredibly diverse group; they include not only recognizable species such as Tiger people, Wolf people, Eagle people, Crow people, Rabbit people, and Tortoise people but also completely new or unrecognizable species, or jumbles that seem to encompass the entire animal kingdom in a single body. Although there are countless species, the overall percentage of rianths in the sophont population is quite small, though there are at least twenty times that many humans with strong rianth aspects to their genome, throughout known space. Many rianths can be found on various Utopia Sphere and Caretaker worlds, or in polities with a high percentage of provolves and splices.

Many Rianths have their origins as humans from tribal and shamanic human societies (especially on some garden worlds under Caretaker Gods) who have decided to go the other way out of respect and admiration and attraction for the animal kingdom, and incorporate animal genes. Old Earth is believed to host a large population of diverse species of rianths. Sometimes, either by culture or by genetic bias, they have common behavioural tendencies: proud Tiger people, Wolf people, and Eagle people, shamanic and clever Crow people, gentle and sexy Rabbit people, Rat people who are notoriously successful in the byways of some of the less policed Outer Volumes, as adaptable, smart, ruthless but also affectionate survivalists, careful and long-lived Tortoise people, aggressive and threatening Alligator people, and so on. Some clades and cultures have continued to enhance these stereotypes, while others have turned their backs on the original concepts. It is common for rianth clades, especially those newly created, to have a general memetic about the superiority of the animal form over that of the human. The basic hominid type is characterized as weak and puny; physically defenceless, with nails instead of claws, small blunt teeth instead of canines; as slow moving, clumsy and uncoordinated, with poor reflexes; as lacking fur or feathers so that clothing or environmental temperature controls to are required; as having poor hearing and almost no smell to speak of; as ugly with their flat faces and baby-like naked pink or brown skin, and so on. Often such rianth clades go to ridiculous lengths of exaggeration along these lines, and regarding the superiority of their own forms. Other, better established rianths are less derogatory and perhaps more comfortable with their own status. Rianths with genomes from non-provolved animals may be distinctly less intelligent than provolve rianths, although a lot also depends on the degree of human genome and various other factors. The less intelligent rianth clades are typically the least tolerant.

Rianth communities and individuals can be found throughout the civilized galaxy. There are even a few cases of transapient and po rianths and rianth clades, the so-called "Animal Gods" of Hynera being among the best known, but by no means the only, representatives.

Rianths are not to be confused with Exotics, nearbaselines who incorporate whatever genome or bodymods are at hand to fashion themselves in extreme forms, usually according to whatever is stylish at the time or in the region, or in keeping with social or peer pressure. Exotics do not typically form actual clades, but simply change from one form to the next according to whim; only if their forms are heritable and stable, and they pass them on to children and form an ongoing group are they considered rianths.

Source :  http://www.orionsarm.com/eg-topic/45beaa73c347e

Methuselahs

Image from Steve Bowers

The diminutive Methusela clade, with the strange backwards pointing knees which give them a gait something like a chicken

Prelude - Life Extension during the Information Age

During the Information Age, gengineering experiments and - later - commercial genemods - were concerned not only with increased intelligence, artistic and athletic ability, physical prowess and resistance to disease, but also general longevity, and "correcting natures mistakes" in order to design a body better able to exist for longer periods. Some of these ideas went back top the turn of the 21st century [1], although it was to be many decades before these approaches became viable in practice.

Lifespan-enhancement involved many factors, each of which had to be dealt with separately. Osteoporosis, cancer, weakening muscles, clogging arteries, organ failure, genetic copying errors, and telomere degradation were only a few of the problems that had to be dealt with. Progress was slow, and optimistic projections frequently failed to eventuate.

By the late Information Age however the developing biopunk subculture, ribophunk freelancers, and big genetech corporations had managed to solve many of these problems, and those that could not be solved without reliable advanced medical nanotech (still over a century away) were at least ameliorated. The result was that the emerging wave of "Homo superior" not only had estimated lifespans in the order of several centuries with bionanotech, and at least 120- to 150 without, but remained youth and fully robust for most of that time.

As such biotechnology was often resource hungry, requiring either wealth, technosavvy, a network of friends and co-workers, or all of the above. Thus in addition to the unofficial but entrenched caste system of digitally literate and illiterate, there emerged the bio-augmented advantaged (sometimes called gattacas, a reference to an old 2D that became a classic among the disenfranchised) and the biologically disadvantaged.

The emergence of Homo methuselus

In the corporate, image, and fad and fashion driven world of 22nd century Earth, looks and appearance were as important as talent and intelligence. Even the biopunks and ribophunks, now feted as celebrities, had become less interested in ground-breaking work on improving the human condition, and more in preserving their public image. Funky feather eyebrows and scaly or leopard-fur skin was cool, a purely functional form that departed from the norm was not. For this reason, the most daring experiments were conducted in the Free Zone micronations like Academion, Mogadishu, and Lyonesse, and later, up the Well in the brave new world of the orbital utopias like New Academion, O'Neil One and Two, Clarke Station, and Orbital Israel.

By no means the most extraordinary of these experiments, but still one to have a great impact even so, was the Methuselah Project, initiated in 2148 c.e. (179 a.t.). A team led by Dr Darwin Jamie Pennak, second generation superbright and part-time consultant for Biotopia, and ex-Modernbody biohack Patricia Heng, decided to pull out all stops and create a true Methuselah - "longevity as if aesthetics did not matter". They took the human body and decided to design it as if evolution had selected for longevity and functional life of a century and more even without bionano or telomerose treatment.

The result was what would have to be one of the least attractive of the "new species" Almost every part of the anatomy was redesigned on the basis of optimal function.

The most obvious difference was in the stature of the new species. The inefficient upright posture was replaced with a forward-leaning stance; the body was also tilted forward to relieve pressure on the vertebrae and the lower back. The neck thrust forward, as well as being thickened, to make it easier to hold up the heads. The height was reduced to help prevent falls and hip fractures caused by aging. The legs were padded with more fat, muscle and thicker bones to withstand falls. More difficult to organise, the knees were made to bend backward, so the wear and tear on the knee and foot joints was reduced. Much of the internal anatomy, the digestive and urogenital tracts, glands, eyesight, and hearing were all redesigned. The ears were enlarged and pointed, to increase the amount of sound they can conduct. They could also move back and forth to better focus sound. The cornea was optimised, balance and coordination improved, and more.

The result was a hominid in appearance remarkably similar to a short and chubby roleplayer's elf.

Life in the Solar System, and Beyond

In 199 a.t. the first of the methuselii, Adam-Methuselah, reached maturity in The Aquarius Free States. He was soon joined by his siblings. Although reasonably intelligent, they did not have superbright intellects, as their whole purpose had been optimised life extension. The Methuselah Project closed soon after; in any case, Pennak, Heng, and the rest of the team had long since moved on to other things, taking the property rights of the methuselah genome with them. It was the low point of despair for the new parahumans. As Adam-Methuselah was later to say, perhaps with understandable bitterness, in his memoirs "no-one was interested in ugly little dwarves who could live forever" [2]. But with the help of several human rights groups and a friendly AI, and after an extended legal battle, the methuselii eventually got legal possession of their geneprint. They migrated up the Well to Clarke Orbital, where they were given citizenship and like many newcomers took the surname "of Clarke", The solar system was being opened up to colonization and development, and the robust and compact little methuselahs found work was available on the frontier, where no-one cared what you looked like, as long as you could get the job done, and do it well.

It was during this time that the name "the squats" was first used to refer to these stocky tweaks. It was part of the frontier culture, along with "gookle", "etie" (for space adapts), "tinhead" (for cyborg) and "beastie boy" (for rianth). Some wore the handle with pride, others resented it

With longevity and rejuvenation treatments available for those who could pay, the growing Methuselah clade were the first true immortals - their bodies were optimised for 200 year lifespans even without any treatment at all; with longevity treatment they could continue for literally thousands of years with little need for further augmentation. Many invested in long-term projects like Oort mining and interstellar development

The attitude of the methuselahs to wetware and other such augmentations was variable. Although A-M ofClarke enthusiastically embraced the new technology "as a way of staying competitive", others, especially the faction headed by his younger brother Noah ofClarke refused to have anything to do such things, an attitude Adam-Methuselah himself found puzzling. On the other hand there were some who went for radical augmentation and hybridization to the extent that they were no longer recognisably methuselan. Thus, from even a relatively early period, the small clade was rent by dissensions and schisms. But in all this, Adam-Methuselah retained a firm hand of leadership, although some put this down to several hyperturings, including Tarith-5 of O'Neill, and another Adam, Adam-24-c of New Academion, who had advised him with legal matters in the fight over Methuselah genome ownership, and were actually grooming the clade for reasons of their own (most probably scientific or anthropological curiosity, although in his autobiography Adam-24-c has strenuously denied this ).

Like many outward moving clades, the methuselahs were little effected by the Technocalypse that brought such devastation to the inner solar system, but the isolation of the surviving habitats only served to deepen the rift between the Adam-Methuselites, the Noaites, and the various cyborg factions of the clan. By the time the First Federation had revived civilization, there were no less than half a dozen methuseline species and subspecies in the Sol System, and an unknown number already outsystem (we know that the Clan Lamech reached the Barnard Belt in 882 on the "backyarder" vessel Jerry Pournelle). Each of these one claiming to be the "true methuselah". And while Adam-Methuselah's faction (the largest of the 6 solsystem clans) voted almost unanimously to join the Federation, most of the others, fearing assimilation or subversion, chose to remain autonomous.

The methuselahs found their talents in high demand in the Federation. As ships were not yet capable of relativistic velocity, there was need for long-lived bionts to serve as crew during the long voyage. The stolid, phlegmatic tweaks were quite happy to spend decades having the run of the ship, especially if there was a suitable commission (usually anywhere from 0.5 to 2% of new planetary development) as part of the deal. Not only many paranoid anti-ai groups, but even mainstream venture start-ups, found this a reasonable offer. As a result, the methuselahs grew very wealthy indeed. Even the emergence of relativist ships did not phase them, for not all corporations or individuals could afford the technology or the amount of amat needed to push a ship to such a high fraction of the speed of light.

With the development of the wormhole Nexus, the rise of the archailect empires, and the increasing availability of amat and reactionless drive vessels, the methuselahs fell from prominence. Even so, managed investments ensured that those who wished to remain in the settled worlds could do in comfort and luxury. And those that wished to move outward to the ever expanding frontier, to find new worlds and investment opportunities, were also able to. Many established successful and long-lived populations in many of the ordinary (non-transapient managed) middle tech societies, and a lesser number of high tech societies, especially in the Inner Sphere and Hinterworld regions

The Methuselahs Today

Among the Old Houses in the galaxy, methuselahs today are renowned as the most stolid, unimaginative and dull of all. They have no pomp, no spectacle, no servants (not even turingrade drones), no finery. They are more likely to invite the visitor into their habitat for a bulb of biofabricated coffee, and are known to raise the bemused eyebrow if ever addressed with standard aristocratic honorifics like 'Excellency" or "Majesty" or "Greatest Zar". They have also changed remarkably little in the last ten thousand years. They still look like a baseline six-year old with pointy-ears on steroids. Most have minimal wetware augmentation, usually only enough to interact comfortably with the household appliances. Many have been cheated out of their inheritance by more cunning sentients, but have just shrugged off the whole affair and taken up a life on the spacelines, or some development project in the Outer Volumes, where they seem to enjoy doing the sort of long-term tedious maintenance work they have become renowned for.

Not a single methuselahs is known to have ever breached even the first singularity toposophic - hence the expression "about as likely as a hyperbright squat"

References

Adam-24-c, My Life and other Stories, vol.1 node e-iii, Eden Interactives, 3851 a.t.

Adam-Methuselah of Clarke, Unfinished Memoirs, Atlantis Media Webooks, O'Neill Three, 2451 c.e. (482 a.t.) (reissued Alexandria Archives - Memory Node "C")

S. Jay Olshansky, Bruce A. Carnes and Robert N. Butler, Scientific American, March 2001 c.e. (31 a.t.) (reissued Alexandria Archives - Memory Node "C")

Darwin Jamie Pennak, Patricia Heng, Morris Mkome, and Sanyo Lee, (ed.) The Methuselah Project, New Academion Modern Classics of Science, 2112 c.e. (143 a.t.) (reissued Alexandria Archives - Memory Node "C")

Source : http://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/47f2fce0d2931